In the night of the 6th, this movement took place, but in such confusion, that, from Taragona, O’Donnel perceived the disorder; and sending a detachment, under colonel Orry, to harass the French, followed himself with the rest of his army. Nevertheless, Severoli’s rear guard, covered the retreat successfully, until a position was attained near Villa Franca; and there Orry, pressing on too closely, was wounded and taken, and his troops rejoined their main body. As these divisions arrived, Campo Verde fell back to Cervera, Severoli reached Barcelona, and Augereau retired to Gerona, having lost more than three thousand men, by a series of most unskilful movements. The situation in which he voluntarily placed himself, was precisely such as a great general would rejoice to see his adversary choose. Barcelona, the centre of his operations, was encircled by mountains, to be passed only at certain defiles; now Reus and Manresa, were beyond those defiles, and several days march from each other. Rovira and Milans being about San Culgat, cut the communication between Manresa and Barcelona; and O’Donnel, at Taragona, was nearer to the defiles of Cristina, than the French divisions at Reus. His communication with Campo Verde, was open by Valls, Pla, and Santa Coloma de Querault; and with Milans and Rovira, by Villa Franca, San Sadurni, and Igualada. Augereau indeed, placed a battalion in Villa Franca, but this only rendered his situation worse; for what could six hundred men effect in a mountainous country against three considerable bodies of the enemy? The result was inevitable. The battalion, at Villa Franca, was put to the sword; Swartz only saved a remnant of his brigade by a timely flight; the divisions at Reus with difficulty made good their retreat; and O’Donnel, who, one month before, had retired from the battle of Vich, broken and discomfited by only five thousand French, now, with that very beaten army, baffled Augereau, and obliged him, although at the head of more than twenty thousand men, to abandon Lower Catalonia, and retire to Gerona with disgrace: a surprising change, yet one in which fortune had no share. [Sidenote: Napoleon’s Memoirs.]